Computer mail systems, also known as electronic mail systems, allow one user to send messages by electronic transmission to mailboxes of other users. In general, the electronic mail is stored in an electronic virtual mailbox, contained on a host computer. The virtual mailbox can be a memory location or a disk storage area on a host computer.
The host computer can be operated by electronic mail providers, such as America-On-Line (AOL), Prodigy or CompuServe. Each electronic mail provider generally uses different proprietary systems to receive, store and retrieve electronic mail. In addition, the host computer can also be a private computer of a particular company for use by the employees of that company. The private computer of each particular company could use different electronic mail systems.
Most users access their electronic mail from their personal computer, whether it is located at their office, for corporate users, or at their residence, for personal users. In this case, the personal computer of the user will be configured and have the appropriate format to allow transfer of data, namely receiving and transmitting information including electronic mail to and from the host computer which contains the user's mailbox.
However, when the user is away from their personal computer, it is difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve electronic mail from their mailbox. One solution would be for the user to have a lap-top or a portable computer with them at all times to facilitate accessing electronic mail when away from their personal computers. However, it is not practical for many people to have a lap-top or personal computer with them at all times solely for retrieving their electronic mail.
Another solution would be for electronic mail providers to have remotely located user-interface devices, such as kiosks. In this way, users that subscribe to a particular electronic mail provider can access electronic mail from these remotely located user-interface devices.
A disadvantage of these user-interface devices is that they are source dependent in that a user-interface device which has been configured and has the formatting and protocol information for accessing electronic mail from AOL cannot access electronic mail from host computers of other electronic mail providers, such as Prodigy. It is not cost-effective to configure and provide formatting, protocol and configuration information at each user-interface device for accessing mailboxes contained on two or more host computers. This problem is compounded when the large number of private organizations having internal electronic mail systems for their employees is considered.
Furthermore, there is limited space at the user-interface devices on which to store formatting, protocol and configuration information to access mailboxes contained on each of the different host computers. In addition, there are potential incapability problems between the various mail systems which could prevent one user-interface device having the ability to access electronic mail from a plurality of host computers.
In addition, some user-interface devices, such as telephones having electronic mail capability, simply do not have the storage space to store the information necessary to receive electronic mail stored in mailboxes contained on a plurality of host computers.